A professional photographer who has only been full-time for six months has captured a prestigious $10,000 art prize. Jayde Gibbons, 28, said her victory in the Charman Prize was “a big win for Bermuda’s culture”.

She added the success of her collage Neighbourhood Kids was also a seal of approval of her skill as a professional photographer.

Ms Gibbons said: “I’m glad that I’m finally getting the recognition, as a fine arts photographer, and I’m really hoping this catapults my career and I get taken seriously.”

“I’m just a regular old person who pays bills like everyone else and I has a passion for photography, so if I can do this, then anyone can do this.”

Ms Gibbons, from Somerset, was speaking after she won the prize, organised by the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art and presented every two years, last Friday.

Ms Gibbons said Neighbourhood Kids featured shots of a Good Friday celebration in her home area. She added that she wanted her piece to avoid traditional Bermudian tourism images.

Ms Gibbons said: “Typically, when you think of Bermuda on a world scale, it’s that same pink sand, white roofs, pastel colours and pristine beaches.

“For locals, this is a part of our culture, but they’re just characteristics of our country.

The culture to me is our people, our holidays, our pastimes, what do we do, what we look like. That’s what I tried to embody, the true culture of the people.”

Ms Gibbons added that she had a lifelong interest in photography, but did not take it up as a profession until two years ago.

She said: “I never really saw anything else for myself as a child, but as I got older and reality started to set in, I thought ‘let me get a job for real, let me go away to school’.

But, photography is my love; the first time I asked for a camera, was in primary school.”

Ms Gibbons’s next project would be a picture book featuring cricketers at Cup Match.

Tom Butterfield, the founder of Paget-based Masterworks, said: “Part of our mandate is to support Bermuda’s artists.

“This competition, with its associated prize money, not only celebrates the diverse talents of Bermuda’s artists, but provides them financial support.”